An open window policy
by Lazy-ass-Ninja
Summary: Ichigo always left his window unlocked.
1. An open window

She couldn't stop the tears from falling down her face as she flew through the night, her destination set in her mind. She was an absolute mess her thoughts never lingering on one thought for more then a moment, and still in this state she knew where her feet were taking her.

She really didn't understand why she was here, let alone why she was waiting awkwardly outside the window wondering if she should knock or not. She knew that the target of her journey to Human world wouldn't care how she came in.

But Ichigo always left his window unlocked.

It was that sentiment that had her rapping her knuckles against the glass. The body less then a foot away startled slightly before he sat up and stretched for a moment, opening the window and letting her walk in without a word.

"A Menos….a Menos appeared during a mission. My… my friend… Miris-chan. S-she…" she tried to say what had occurred what still felt like mere moments ago.

The scene was as real to her as the blood staining her already filthy hands.

A firm grip wrapped around her wrist, "You can tell me what's wrong after we clean you up. You're disgusting" Ichigo sighed, his voice giving away the concern that reminded her why she had ran here. Ichigo took her blood soaked hands without worrying about tainting his own hands.

Taking her towards the bathroom he sat her down on the toilet and grabbed a rag gently scrubbing away the dried blood. They sat there for a while, Ichigo getting rid of all the traces of blood on her hands. She let him do it, because even if it was just Ichigo commenting on how she really needed to trim her nails it felt like she had returned to normalcy.

Ichigo had given her ground to stand on in her moment of need.

She couldn't express her gratitude for that. She felt her eyes start to sting with unshed tears a mixture of gratitude towards Ichigo and grief for what had happened.

Ichigo let her cry, not once did he look away from scrubbing the filth off of her hands. She felt the warmth of his hands wiping away the evidence of what had happened and that was enough, she didn't need him to wrap his arms around her and tell her it was okay.

It was alright to cry, but only while Ichigo was cleaning off her hands. Once her hands were washed of what had happened she wasn't allowed to cry anymore.

Ichigo took his time.

An hour later and Ichigo stopped, it was around 3 in the morning now, and she finally had the mind to remember that in the morning she could sleep in and not go to school but Ichigo was a student, who already missed enough school as it was.

She looked over at Ichigo guiltily, "I-"

"I don't want to hear it. If I didn't I wouldn't leave my window unlocked." he gave her that annoyed look he got when he was trying to get a point across. "Don't they teach you spirit world nobles anything about manners by the way?" he asked his eyebrow quirked in inquiry.

"Wh-" she paused in her sentence before she gave a small smile, the first one she'd managed in a bit, " Thank you." she said her hand gripping Ichigo's.

"You're welcome. Now, we should both get some sleep. You look awful, and I have school tomorrow." he grumbled, suddenly looking very tired, he stood stumbling slightly he turned and walked towards his room, leaving the door open.

Rukia happily followed a minute later, noticing that Ichigo's window was still unlocked for others that needed him. Feeling selfish she leaned over controlling her breathing, making sure that she didn't disturb Ichigo who had already fallen asleep.

She flipped the lock into place making sure that no one else would bother Ichigo that night.


	2. Sleep

The leader of squad ten was tired.

No matter where he had gone today he had found work waiting for him, and only him. Whether it be to the library, squad four headquarters, even his own room. He couldn't find any solace to close his eyes and sleep for more then ten minutes without someone, mostly Matsumoto, running in with a pile of work.

This was the third day, still he found himself unable to sleep. It had gotten to the point where he was grateful when a hell butterfly from Yamamoto arrived telling him to go and inform Kurosaki Ichigo of some news, mostly that Ichigo was allowed the one day reprieve he had requested.

He felt the cool air of the real world blow against his skin. Closing his eyes he looked for Ichigo's impressive reiatsu. He felt it easily, Ichigo's had always been vastly different from any other reiatsu he had felt. He blamed the fact that Ichigo was a Vizard.

He wandered through Karakura town, his mind not really paying too much attention to where he was going. He was just following the reiatsu signature. His mind wandered to some of the stories that Rukia had told about the Kurosaki household.

Anyone who had met Rukia heard countless stories about Ichigo. Of the stories that he had heard the one that always stuck with Hitsugaya the most was the fact that Ichigo's window was always unlocked. He had found the house that held the powerful substitute Shinigami easily enough. Despite having been to the real world more then most captains had after Ichigo had joined their ranks, he had never been over to Ichigo's house.

He saw the window, a light dimly shining through showing that Ichigo was likely awake. He dropped down to the window and was greeted with the sight of Kurosaki Ichigo bent over his desk scribbling away on a book that Hitsugaya recognized from one of his longer trips to the real world as an assignment book from math.

He sat there waiting for Ichigo to mention him, he knew that the orange haired Vizard had noticed him, he was doing nothing to hide his reiatsu. An hour passed of undisturbed silence, just the soft, but soothing, sound of Ichigo's pencil scratching on the paper.

Ichigo's warm room, the dim lights, and the familiar smell added up to be the ultimate trifecta that reminded his sleep deprived mind that it was sleep deprived. For the first time in three days he felt his eyes start to droop, he managed to shock himself back at first, but as an hour turned into two his eyes fell shut.

Only to shoot open a moment later as he teetered off the windowsill his mind reacting too slowly for him to react correctly, "Ah-" he started to shout but he felt a hand grasp his arm and pull him inside the room again.

"Toushiro! Jeez, I thought you had enough sense to know it's dumb to fall asleep on windowsills of all things!" Ichigo's rough voice hit his ears.

"Thanks…" he mumbled too tired to form any other response, moving to regain his spot on the windowsill but Ichigo pulled him further into the warm room, "Kurosaki?" he questioned lightly.

"Ah, this homework is gonna keep me up for the next eternity. So you can take the bed, I'll just crash somewhere when I finish up." Ichigo placed him down onto the bed and without any semblance of shame he stripped off various parts of his captain uniform.

"Hey! I can do it myself." Hitsugaya muttered pushing away Ichigo's helping hands as he desperately fought against a yawn, "Stop treating me like a kid…" he muttered finishing taking off the rest of his unnecessary gear.

"If you want me to stop treating you like a kid, stop looking like a kid. Now shut up and go to sleep Toushiro." Ichigo gave Hitsugaya a brotherly pat on the head, the white haired captain couldn't keep the grin off his face at the gesture. Before he could even comprehend it he was asleep.


End file.
